General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has accused the governing New Patriotic Party of stealing their ideas to win points and support from Ghanaians.

According to the outspoken General Secretary, the Akufo-Addo-led administration is implementing some of their recommendations without acknowledging that it came from the NDC.

President Akufo-Addo during his fifth address to the nation announced relief packages by the government as it strives to limit the impact of the virus on social and economic life. Among such interventions is the absorption of water bills for all Ghanaians for the next three months, roll out of a soft loan scheme up to a total of GHC600m which will have a one-year moratorium and two year repayment period for micro, small and medium-scale businesses, a tax holiday for frontline health workers for the next three months and an additional allowance of 50 percent of their basic salary per month for April, May, and June among many others.

The announcement by the President caused wild jubilation among Ghanaians because most of their burdens have been taken away with some commending President Akufo-Addo for rolling out such interventions during this pandemic period.

But the NDC insists the reliefs announced by the government were borne out of the recommendations they gave on how to deal with the pandemic and its impact on the economy. According to Asiedu Nketia, the NDC raised concerns over the lack of preparedness on the part of the government when the disease started spreading to other countries.

However, the NDC does not want to take credit for that since the focus is to fight the virus, asserting the collaboration between them and the government has not been the best.

Speaking in an interview on Power FM, Asiedu Nketia further accused government of manipulating information to create an image or argument that favours their political interests.

“The government is only focusing on information management so it will create a public image they are comfortable with. Their focus is not about managing the health crisis. The government values the information aspect of the fight. For them, however bad the information is, they want to manage the information to create a better public image.”

”This is defeating the lockdown. When you complain, they will say it is not true. If we give Ghanaians the right information, they will not violate the lockdown directive,” he added.

He insisted government is not being truthful with the infection rate as well as total persons infected.

President Akufo-Addo yesterday, April 5 disclosed that Ghana is entering the critical phase of the COVID-19 fight as the Ghana Health Service awaits the results of about 15,000 people and these results are expected to determine the fate of the country in the fight against the virus.

But reacting to it, Asiedu Nketia said the information given by President Akufo-Addo is questionable.

“How do we track the progress of their information? The core objective of the government is to manipulate the release of the information to control public opinion for them use it for politics. That is the summary of what is happening,” he said.

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